Cant Get LILO to load

**Billabong9305** · 08-03-2004, 10:38 AM

Well let me just take the time to say this Distro is amazing, so much so that I decided to install to my hdd. After the installation was complete, keep in mind is was successful, and that I have windows xp pro, but LILO will not boot up when I restart my computer, it automatically boots windows xp pro... ive been running Knoppix for sometime now, but Im not an expert in MBR or Dual Booting, so someone PLZ HELP ME!!! Thanks in advance...

**landcruiser** · 08-03-2004, 11:41 AM

Fraid I have the same problem. After a few days playing with Knoppix decided to go for a HDD install on a newly built P4 3GHz 1GB RAM Radeon 9200 system. I have WinXP on one HDD and installed a second HDD for Linux. Installed OSL2000 as boot manager. Although the Knoppix HD install process seemed to run ok, there were some error messages at the end, like could not determine the display driver (I have to use module=radeon cheat code on CD boot).

Attempting to boot from the Linux HDD either results in a blank screen with a hanging cursor or the word GRUB. Hmmm..... must be time for lunch.......

Any clues folks?

**Yuanlong** · 08-03-2004, 01:18 PM

Since its the first time you install I guess you choose the beginner mode during installation. If not mistaken, you have choose not to install lilo into master boot record(mbr). If so, you will have to configure it manually so that i takes control.
try using #lilo and reconfigure it.

**landcruiser** · 08-03-2004, 02:11 PM

Thanks Yuanlong - I´will give it a try. In fact I have now attempted 3 install processes, using each of the install type options in turn, most recently the Debian type. Now when I boot I get into the GRUB shell, but I dont really know what I am doing here. Reading the man pages it looks like I need to run update-grub but the only place I can do that from seems to be in a shell after booting from CD - then it does not find the /boot/grub directory on the HDD and tells me to mkdir, even though the directory is there. I guess thats because its looking in the ramdisk rather than the hdd.

Feels like I am going round in circles......

**Yuanlong** · 08-03-2004, 03:05 PM

Well if you don't mind to reinstall it again(since it install very fast) just do it with beginner mode and when it ask about lilo, choose to put it into mbr and you shall see lilo when you boot up.

**shah** · 08-03-2004, 03:23 PM

You can try

1)Boot your knoppix cd
2)Open root konsole (su,password)
3)Type:
mount /dev/hd* /mnt/hd*
chroot /mnt/hd*
*partition which you install knoppix
4)Run update-grub

If the update did not add your xp partition, you can manually
add this line in your Grub's menu.lst:
title WindowsXP
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

**Billabong9305** · 08-03-2004, 07:25 PM

Well I have XP PRO and Knoppix both running now... I repartitioned my HDD and reinstalled Knoppix, instead of loading LILO on my partition I chose to load it into my MBR... now she running good, I get a choice on start up to choose, knoppix or wxp... however I use to be running 1024x768 on the live cd and now im can only run 800x600, and when I KXCONFIG I change the res. however when I reboot it doesnt work, also I changed my background and desktop icons but the settings isnt saved. And I would have to hate to do a SAVECONFIG after already installing it to my HDD. Does anyone know what I can atleast do about my screen resolution? Ive read that since my res worked fine with tthe cd I should copy my XF86Config-4 file from the CD to my HDD, does anyone know if this would work or should i edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4? And why isnt my desktop settings being saved on reboot? Thanks guys in advance...

**landcruiser** · 08-04-2004, 10:54 AM

Thanks for your help folks, I'm making progress but still not there!

After some nightmare hours trashing my WinXP installation by uninstalling OSL2000 I reformatted & reinstalled Win, then started all over with knoppix hd installation, chosing the beginner's option from knoppix-installer.

I followed your suggestion Shah, and ran update-grub from a root konsole. However, I can't see how to edit the menu.lst as I can't seem to open kwrite as root - the passwords su or sudo don't seem to work there like they do in a shell.

Booting from hdd I get the following error messages:

Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
Cannot mount selected partition

OK I've led a sheltered life running windows all these years ...... your further help would be much appreciated.

**landcruiser** · 08-04-2004, 11:20 AM

.....sussed out that I can start kwrite from a root konsole

but I still get the same error messages from grub.....

**shah** · 08-04-2004, 01:00 PM

I'm baffled here, you said you have two hard disk, one with xp and the others knoppix, but you have hdd partition. There suppose to have only hda and hdb partition.

You have to let us know which partition you install xp and knoppix.

My suggestion is reinstalled knoppix and remove grub from mbr. The reason is, you have to copy of grub, one in mbr and the other in knoppix partition. Grub got headache because it saw it's another clone

1) To remove grub from mbr, use dos fdisk /mbr or using your xp installation cd, choose console recovery : fixmbr
This will let you boot straight into Xp.

2) To remove grub and knoppix from second hard drive you need to delete that partition and create new partition. You can delete this partition from within XP. Do it under control panel--->sytem administrator. Than create two new partition, 500MB for linux swap and the rest for linux ext2 or ext3(doesn't matter since knoppix-installer will reformat it to ext3) using partition manager. If you have partition manager such as Partition magic, it will be much easier. Try googling.

3) When you install knoppix, choose beginner and let it install lilo in mbr. It will automatically detect all your partition.